The Mandela Day initiative was founded in honour of the late Nelson Mandela who spent 67 years of his life making the world a better place. You are asked to give 67 minutes back in memory of this great man. The day and the weekend has happened, but we should never wait to do good to others.

I spent this last weekend with the Bikers for Mandela Day, who are simply are group of bikers who decided to get together and do good. If you wondering who they are; that’s not important because all that matters is they made a difference. They gave blankets to the needy, they gave of their time to visit the aged and the orphans, they helped get new prosthesis for a 8 year old boy, they painted a dining room in a special needs home and they even gave a mobile library to a creche. The world needs people who will do things out of the goodness of their hearts instead of always looking for some sort of recognition, that is leadership in the true sense – simply serving the needs of others.

If you want to know what a person is like, just observe how they treat those who could never pay them back.

So then how is it possible to make everyday a Mandela Day?

We may not be able to dedicate 67 minutes to something, but here are a few ideas you might like to implement into your life in the next year and get closer to our purpose of making a difference in the lives of others.

My observation of the great Mandela was that he was a true listener – just by listening you are paying respect to people. You will often never know the effect your listening will have on a person, just know that it will have an effect. How about trying to listen to 67 people you have never listened to before?

Mandela was a man with a fantastic smile. A smile changes the world and the ripple effect of a smile is felt long after you have stopped smiling. How about smiling 67 times and then repeating that to see if you can smile more than 67 times in a year, perhaps you can smile 67 times in a month, 67 times in a week or even 67 times in a day – just imagine if we could all smile 67 times a day. I can promise you the world will be a different place.

How about going around our houses and looking for 67 things we don’t need and giving those things to someone who could actually use them. I know that Hospice shops as an example raise funds by selling old clothes that get donated – oh and they make good money when they sell your second hand bed. Please think of your local charities when you clean up your home.

Mandela was a man who believed that ‘readers are leaders’. How about offering your time to read to the aged, teach extra lessons and before we get too outward focused. When last did we read to our own children or the children in our family – the example starts at home. How about setting the example to your children and read 67 books in this next year.

The ideas could be endless, the main idea is to make a difference in the lives of others, who knows how different our lives could be if we start thinking of others. I would love to hear your ideas and I will add them to this article and credit you for your idea.

1 Response to Make every day #MandelaDay

Such a great post! As a leader, all these things are very important. I find all your input to be vital for different kinds of leaders out there. Keep up the good work and I wish you all the best.-Chris Thompson